The session looked into ways to ensure affordable and adaptable access to improved sanitation in urban settings, such as by mobilising the community. Guy Collender, SHARE Policy and Communications Officer, explained more: Second event - equity and inclusion WaterAid believes that efforts to eradicate global poverty will only succeed if the needs of the poorest and most excluded people are considered at every level of planning and development. Despite the UN General Assembly declaring that access to water and sanitation is a human right, research shows that the poorest and most vulnerable people are being denied this right time and time again. The needs of older people, disabled people, women, children, those living with HIV/AIDS and members of disadvantaged minority groups are repeatedly overlooked. "Successes have been made in reaching the hardest to reach in pockets around the world," said Tom Palakudiyil, Head of the South Asia Region at WaterAid.
"However, now we need more political commitment that translates into positive action, financing that is better targeted, and knowledge of solutions that are accessible, affordable and adaptable in order to make this progress wider-reaching." I interviewed Tom to find out a bit more about how the session went. The session highlighted successful efforts to reach those groups that have previously been left out from water and sanitation programmes.
Hasin Jahan from WaterAid in Bangladesh explained a bit about the challenges in tea workers achieve access to water and sanitation. WaterAid is working to achieve targeted solutions that incorporate understanding and sensitivity to their different cultures and unique situation. The solutions must also overcome challenges of access, as they are confined to their tea gardens and outsiders are forbidden entry, and the challenge of time, due to their long working hours. Mayor's reception After a packed day of sessions and networking, WaterAid joined the crowds of participants flocking to Stockholm City Hall for the Mayor's reception. The venue is an impressive landmark and a striking feature in the city's skyline, which also plays host to the Nobel Prize banquet. The evening presented an opportunity to chat with the different people we had met during the day in beautiful architectural surroundings on the waterfront. Now, time for bed to prepare for another busy day! Laura Crowley Day two: Monday 22 August Team WaterAid had an early start, with a 9am meeting to discuss plans for the week ahead. But the tone of the day was set by a chance encounter on the train, when I met a man called Asit K. Biswas, President of the Third World Centre for Water Management, and a leading authority on water management. After learning that I worked in a Communications role, he told me a story about a project in Colombo, where 30% of the local people were not drinking clean water because the authorities had failed to communicate that the water was safe to drink. In other words, if you have the technological solutions but fail to communicate clearly, then you are only doing half the job. It's why WaterAid puts such a strong emphasis on training, community involvement and the long-term sustainability of projects.
So if today was all about communication, then who better to communicate the message of WaterAid's mission in Stockholm than Barbara Frost, WaterAid's Chief Executive? She gave me a quick summary of our activities and focus for Stockholm 2011: Although there was a hive of activity on the Sunday, the 'Opening Plenary' was the first big event of the week, with the great and the good from Stockholm and beyond giving a variety of interesting short speeches to warm things up for the week ahead. Many drew on the experiences of Stockholm, which 40 years ago was a city surrounded by relatively dirty water and 150 years ago lacked water and sanitation infrastructure. Now people swim in its waters and the growing city has no problems with water or sanitation. Change can and does happen. On my way past the busy, buzzy WaterCube.tv stand, I was persuaded into the cube and asked a few questions about the use of digital communications technologies both at the conference, where the Twitter #wwweek hashtag has been enthusiastically adopted, and in the wider context. You can watch the interview here. The WaterAid stand has been doing brisk business too. Our USB sticks, containing a selection of our key publications, have proven particularly popular. This inspired me to check out the other stands to see what they were doing to attract the crowds. Bookmark-sized leaflets are all the rage this year, while other tempting give-aways have included DVDs, rulers, pens, and even fortune cookies from 300in6.org! (My cookie contained a message about water treatment technologies and a link to their website - nice idea!) I was interested to see stands that have been using digital technology in interesting ways, such as water-energy-food.org using QR codes and a massive touch-screen to lure passes by, and the International Water Management Institute using a fun touchscreen quiz as their hook. Akvo.org, meanwhile, attracted attention by having an even bigger TV screen, as well as with some very interesting digital communications services to connect people with projects. But one stand, the Urban Right to Water & Sanitation, stood out for me (apart from the WaterAid stand of course!) Using nothing but powerful photographic images from New Delhi, this more traditional approach conveyed a strong sense that the problems of water and sanitation have not gone away, with some of the shocking open-defecation images taken just last week.
The simple power of these black and white photographs cut through a lot of the conference 'noise'. Photographer O.P. Singh spoke to me about some of his photos: In the late afternoon, Jenny Appelblad from the Sweden office broke some very exciting news at the WaterAid stand: The Swedish Crown Princess Couple have agreed to become patrons of WaterAid in Sweden. The royal couple welcomed Chair of the WaterAid in Sweden Board, Jan Eliasson, Executive Director Per Stenbeck and the incoming Executive Director Cecilia Chatterjee Martinsen at Stockholm Castle today to announce the decision. The Swedish royal couple has been together for seven years, and got married last year. While both are separately patrons for other charities, this is the first time they have become joint patrons of the same charity. WaterAid is clearly something they both wanted to be part of! It's really great to be here to share WaterAid in Sweden's happiness at this fantastic appointment. Joe Downie Day three: Tuesday 23 August There was so much happening yesterday that, if you weren't following us on Twitter, you may have missed something, as there just wasn't time to cover everything! For example, I had a great conversation with Becky Straw from The Adventure Project, which has been working with WaterAid in America and WaterAid in India on supporting a handpump mechanic business in the state of Bihar. Key to the Adventure Project is inspiring communication, showing 'investors' the social return of their support. We hope we can learn from one another and collaborate more in the future.
There was also an historic WaterAid moment when three chief executives past and present - Barbara Frost, Ravi Narayanan and Jon Lane - appeared together for a photo-call. A nice moment, captured on camera here. I grabbed a few words with Jon, who had an enthusiastic message for WaterAid staff and supporters... Today has also seen the launch of the WASHwatch.org website, which has been in development for a couple of years so it is satisfying to see it finally out there in the public realm. My colleague Ian Ross did an excellent job explaining and demonstrating the site and the response from delegates was encouraging. I caught up with Barbara and asked her what had caught her attention so far. She said the point made by Juan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, about space was interesting: "He was saying how, in the developed world, we use 25 - 30% of our urban 'streetspace' for this, whereas in slums it's more like 3%. 'Urban planning is important' seemed to be his key point. "Then the point made by Prof Dinesh Mehta from Gujurat was a clear one. He said 'stop all these pilots, we haven't got enough planes for all these pilots! Let's get on with city-wide programmes'. "His point about installing taps and toilets in the home, rather than communally, on the grounds of them being cheaper in the long-run because they are 'owned' and maintained, was also an interesting one." "Nothing is ever brand new, and the point made by Clos that we're now seeing rapid urbanisation but without industrialisation, was an interesting one. We often look back at history for solutions, but things are genuinely different now." Day four: Wednesday 24 August As there's so much happening in so many different conference halls and side-rooms, it's hard to get an overall sense of the 'theme' for any particular day, but today it does feel like there's been a lot of interest in sanitation, and there's also been plenty of discussion on the role of the private sector. Today Nestle was awarded the Stockholm Industry Water Award for its work in recognising the value of water and, ultimately, using much less of it while producing more. This award recognises what they are doing now as a company, relating specifically to water use, and judged according to strict criteria. As David Garman from the judging committee noted, Nestle won because of its proven world class performance of water management, and establishing itself as a global leader in water reporting and usage. And as demand for food is set to double by 2050, we do need greater water efficiency in food production. One of the catchphrases of the week has been the 'water, food, energy nexus', pointing towards next year's conference theme which wil be around food security. As one speaker pointed out, because it's the new fad, there's a danger that it becomes a slogan and not much more. Something to definitely be aware of.
In other news, many of our partner organisations have made the journey to Stockholm, and it's been great meeting the friendly faces behind all those many acronyms that I hear of in my day to day work. One such person is Issaka Musah from Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), based in Ghana. He told me why he was here. Catching up with Barbara Frost, she wanted to pass on a success story that she had heard in a seminar from Isabel Blackett at the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) in Indonesia. "She gave a fantastic story about what had happened there, a real example of how peer pressure worked. A group of mayors lobbied the national government. Then mayors in other cities saw what was going on and started thinking, 'we want to do that for our city, make it healthier and more hygienic with good sanitation'. "The government investment in sanitation between 2005 and 2010 went from 0.3% of GDP to 1.4% of GDP and that was really because of pressure within, which I thought was terrific." And this isn't the only story of organisations using an element of peer pressure to get things done. Others I've heard about have included:
From all these examples it does appear that appealing to human nature is certainly one way to get things done - no-one wants to look like they are doing nothing to tackle the sanitation crisis, which can only be a good thing. Finally for today, in the evening our friends at WaterAid in Sweden hosted a small reception for friends, supporters and colleagues from the wider WaterAid family. This was in recognition of the great work they have been doing since they were established a couple of years ago, and a chance for the current Executive Director Per Stenbeck to introduce us to his successor Cecilia Chatterjee Martinsen, and for us all to meet the Chair of WaterAid in Sweden, Jan Eliasson. They've already achieved so much in such a short space of time with a staff of just four people, so they richly deserved the recognition they received this week when the Swedish Crown Princess Couple, HRH Crown Princess Victoria and HRH Prince Daniel, announced their joint patronage of WaterAid in Sweden. So, a well deserved celebration and here's to WaterAid in Sweden going from strength to strength, ultimately helping more people gain access to clean water and safe sanitation. Although a glass of wine or two was enjoyed, we remembered our tweet from earlier in the day that 120 litres of water goes into producing a single glass of wine. Food (and drink) for thought. Until tomorrow... Joe Downie Day five: Thursday 25 August Today I made it along to one of the seminars, to get a taste of the kind of things being discussed. Richard Carter, Head of the Technical Support Unit at WaterAid, gave a really clear and concise presentation about delivering equitable WASH services in a rapidly urbanising world. His central argument was that, generally speaking, the technology solutions already exist to tackle the problems, and that the biggest change required is in mindset - changing the way people look at problems. He identifed three main paradign shifts that are needed:
But the problems are not impossible to solve, and Richard gave examples of success stories from Lilongwe, Malawi (financially viable water kiosks) and the 'gulper' system for emptying pit latrines being shown to be viable in Tanzania. To succeed, said Richard, we need (emphasis my own):
It was a great presentation full of straight-forward recommendations which even a non-policy geek such as myself could understand and see the value of. In my regular catch-up with Barbara Frost, she told me about the Laureates' seminar she'd been to this morning, Building long term resitance to withstand catastrophes, where the environmental aspects of water and sanitation issues were discussed. In other words, seeing them as part of the bigger environmental, eco-system picture. "Sunita Narain, an Indian environmentalist and major supporter of sustainable development, said we need to re-engage with the cycles of nature - not that we're going to go back and live as we did hundreds of years ago - but that we need to understand and respect the cycles of nature much more. "She thinks we're too arrogant, and too literate! She said we need more humility and 'humble engineers' - with a greater respect for nature. It's not about engineering solutions, it's about re-engineering society and minds." "She ended by saying that unless we make change we will all end up drowning in our own excreta!" And with that, Barbara was off to another session. Elsewhere, it's been a busy afternoon in the seminar rooms, with both Daniel Yeo from WaterAid in the UK, and Lisa Schechtman from WaterAid in the US, taking part in seminars. Back in the exhibition area, it's been relatively quiet, with some stands beginning to shut up shop for the day. So I took the opportunity to photograph some of the best posters and displays before they get taken down. Joe Downie Day six: Friday 26 August The end is in sight, and for many it's been a real marathon event! I, along with many of my colleagues, have been here all week, but we're packing up now (I type this to a soundtrack of boxes being taped up and stands being dismantled) and should be all done by early afternoon. It will be nice to see Stockholm in daylight finally! The closing plenary saw Jenny Appelblad from WaterAid in Sweden speak on the big stage in her role as a Lead Rapporteur for the theme Urban areas in a landscape context. Although her role here was to summarise the various sessions on this theme, it was great she managed to do so through a 'WaterAid lense' - she even managed to mention equity and inclusion! Tom Palakudiyil (head of South Asia region), who has been co-ordinating WaterAid's presence and activities here all week, spoke to me about what we have achieved by being here: "Team WaterAid's achievements were in two main areas. One was contributing to the ongoing debate on some of the critical issues in the WASH sector. "For instance, how to do we make sure services reach even the poorest, how do we make sure that what's being done on the ground is being properly monitored, how do we make sure duty-bearers are held accountable to the promises that they make? "Also this year I think there was much more emphasis on finding affordable and sustainable solutions, particularly relating to the urban sanitation challenge. "At the other level what we were able to do as a team was to find more effective ways of implementing this work, through cementing partnerships, firming up plans for what we want to do jointly with our coalition networks, and also forging new relationships. "That to me were the main contributions, and these, together with lots of side meetings and one to one meetings, enabled us to do a considerable amount of good work. "Also, through having a fully-staffed exhibition stand it was possible to reach many more people than we would have been able to otherwise. "Change can happen more slowly than we might like, but some of the things we were talking about three years ago, and were a single voice on, for example, the idea that we need to look differently at 'waste' and view it as an asset, has been heard a great deal this year, and is now generally recognised." Indeed, sitting in the closing plenary this was the thought that struck me - overall, there weren't that many people in Stockholm talking about some of the issues WaterAid champions, such as equity and inclusion, and reaching the most marginalised groups. This is why, I think, WaterAid's emphasis on these themes is entirely justified and necessary. It seems appropriate to leave the final words to Barbara Frost, who has been tirelessly attending sessions, meetings and functions all week. Speaking at the airport (there really is no escape from us!) Barbara gave her thoughts on the week: "As usual, Stockholm Water Week has been a wonderful smorgasboard of seminars, side events, and prizes. It's also been a haven for networking and meeting up with a whole community of people who really care about water and sanitation for all. "We set out to learn, to share our experiences of working with local partners in Africa and Asia, and to call for a better deal for those that still live without safe water to drink and a decent place to go to the toilet. "WaterAid colleagues really did a fabulous job to achieve this, working long hours and meeting as many people as possible. "While in the early days the event focused on engineering solutions, it is now looking at the need for integrated solutions – involving people, behaviour change, politics and above all leadership. Solutions that will bring an end to water poverty and improve health and livelihoods while nurturing and protecting our planet and our ecosystems. "We came away inspired and motivated to do our very best to achieve our vision of water and sanitation for all." And with that, it's time to take down the stand and head back home. Many thanks to the event organisers and all the delegates for organising and participating in such a great event. Joe Downie
Video clipsSee all the interview clips with this YouTube playlist, being updated throughout the week:
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WaterAid joined thousands of water experts from around the world at Stockholm World Water Week to share ideas and experiences on issues related to water, sanitation and hygiene and thereby influence both policy and practice.
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